Month: August 2022

Vision of Repair

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Applied Theology, InspirationLeave a comment

This Shabbat is called שבת חזון/Shabbat Hazon, the Sabbath of Vision; and it immediately precedes Tisha B’Av, or the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av. Traditionally it is a fast day remembering many tragic events in Jewish history: the return and false testimony of the spies in the wilderness; the destructions of both Temples in Jerusalem; expulsions from England and Spain; and many other tragic events. It is a time of fasting, and mourning, but also hope.

The haftara, portion after the Torah, reading of Shabbat Hazon is from Isaiah 1:1-27. The name of this Shabbat is taken from the first word of this prophetic book: חֲזוֹן/Hazon – vision. Isaiah opens with an accounting of the waywardness of God’s people. The judgment that is to come, but also a plea of “come let us reason together, says the Lord …” (Isa. 1:18), the hope and vision of reconciliation.

Before one mourns destruction, we must have vision of repair.

Tisha b’Av, as a day of mourning, remembers many tragic events in Jewish history; all attributed to that day. I recall hearing a talk on Tisha b’Av some years ago where the rabbi explained that the reason one day was designated as the day of mourning is because if we were to mourn every event on the day it happened, we would be mourning every day.

The rabbis say that the second Temple was destroyed due to baseless hate, שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם/sinat chinam. While שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם, is often translated as baseless hate, it has a deeper meaning: hatred of grace. The grace that is to be between brethren, how we view others, and how we love them must be in keeping with His grace, as Paul writes, “See that no one repays evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all” (I Thess. 5:15). Here, Paul is writing of grace through forgiveness, and grace in action (I Cor. 13).

In our moments of struggle with others, heaven forbid that they should come, we must see past the moment, even in the difficulty, to the reconciliation. Before the mourning, the vision. This is the vision of repair of brokenness. It is the vision of grace working, forming and conforming us to the image of Messiah Yeshua/Jesus (Ro. 8:28-29). It is a vision of repair of a broken society.

If שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם/sinat chinam, baseless hatred, a hatred of grace, destroyed the physical Temple in Jerusalem, how much more does does it destroy the Temple of God in us (I Cor. 3:16-17)? We love grace when we are on the receiving end, but we are prone to holding back grace when it is us needing to give.

Beloved friends: grace wasn’t ours in the first place. Give it. Love His grace! Freely give it, especially when the pain is so deep. Have a vision of repair even before the garment is rent. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov said, “If you believe you can break something, have faith that you can repair it.” Messiah Yeshua said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn. 13:34). Again Paul, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32).

The Body of Messiah is in need of loving repair. It is in need of the grace that saved it to be at work among us. May we return again the Lord who redeemed us, cleansed us, and who so deeply loves us. May we learn to kindly, and even lovingly disagree, not to separation, but Lord willing, ultimately restoration.

It’s hard; but with God, nothing is impossible.

Shabbat Shalom; and I pray He blesses you with a vision of repair, forgiveness, and renewal to His glory. Amen.

The Miraculous Axe

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Inspiration1 Comment

Many years ago I was working on clearing some small trees and brush away from a natural pool of water on a neighbors property. There was a nice flow of water, and in this pool they could enjoy the cool water on a hot day. For the larger trees I used my chainsaw, but for the smaller branches around the pool, on trees they did not want taken down, I used my hatchet. It would be less damaging to the tree, and on the edge of the pool it was a safer option. When I was done I put the hatchet in my hammer holder on my belt, or I thought I did, then “splash!” Into the pool it went.

Of all the miracles recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, one that I consider from time to time, is perhaps the most unusual of them all, this includes the parting of the Red Sea, manna, and the sun standing still.

An axe-head falls into the Jordan River, and a prophet retrieves it; as we read, “So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it” (II Kings 6:4-6).

God does not want to bless you for the sake of blessing – He blesses you for the sake of healing. But why this miracle?

The young man who lost the axe-head was from בְנֵי-הַנְּבִיאִים, the sons of the prophets. In other words, he was a student of the leading prophet of the time Elisha. Elisha, “to whom God is salvation,” was a farmer, not surprisingly, when Elijah set his mantle on him. Elisha then destroys every means of returning to his former life: oxen, yoke, and his own clothes. He follows, serves, and learns from Elijah over a period of 12 years; and then, upon seeing Elijah taken away into heaven bodily, he walks with greater anointing than Elijah – a double portion, as he was “adopted” as Elijah’s spiritual son.

The young prophet, without income or any possession, borrows an axe, and promptly loses it; according to the Torah, Exodus 22:13-14, he is now liable for it, and must make full restitution. He borrowed it because he could not afford it in the first place; and in that moment, the waters of the Jordan became bitter for this young prophet.

Elisha cuts a branch, and tosses – literally “sent it” – to spot where the axe-head had fallen. The axe-head then rose from the water, and was restored. This miracle draws the readers attention back to Exodus 15:22-26, when Israel runs out of water, then coming to bitter waters they need a miracle to make them sweet. The Lord shows Moses a tree – or “taught Moses a tree” – and throwing it into the water, the waters are sweetened.

It seems a rather unusual miracle; however, what we notice of Elisha is that he walked the dusty streets, he went into the dirty shops, into the wars, the places where people worked, and where they lived, and brought the life and character of God there. He was present in life.

The young prophet who dropped the axe into the Jordan did not have the resources to make restitution to its owner, so Elisha restored an ordinary implement of labor by extraordinary means. Elisha made the young prophet whole again, thus removing the bitterness from the flow of blessing – the Jordan. Elisha cured the bitterness.

Yeshua/Jesus has done the same, and to a greater degree (Heb. 12:15). He did not endorse moving to the Jordan, away from the profane; rather, He sat and ate with tax-collectors and sinners. He healed and restored people so they could get back into life. He showed them extraordinary grace.

The crowd of prophets who followed after Elijah and Elisha often stood at a distance watching, not drawing near; but God never builds His Kingdom on the crowds standing and watching – He builds His Kingdom on those who press in.

After we sing, dance, praise, and learn in congregation, the world of harsh realities is still out there. People are still watching their ax-heads fall into the flowing water. Again, God does not want to bless you for the sake of blessing – He blesses you for the sake of healing: yours and theirs.

I did not get a miracle with my hatchet. I got wet. And at times we get wet for the recovery of life.

God is able.

He will still lift anyone’s ax-head – their loss in life – not for the sake of the loss, but for them. He is in the recovery business. And business is busy, but so good. Yet, sometimes, He does not send a stick into the water. Sometimes He sends you into the water; and in that sending, He includes you in the miracle of turning bitterness, loss, and hopelessness into eternal joy.

Hallelujah!

Be well. Shalom.

The Ragtag Remnant: Beauty in the Rubble

On By Bp. Justin ElwellIn Applied Theology, InspirationLeave a comment

As the people of Messiah Congregation can attest to, prompted by the Lord, I spent seven months teaching through the books of Nehemiah, Ezra, Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi. These books focus on the rebuilding of the Holy Temple and the Jewish people as the first exile ends, and the return begins. In the wake of the pandemic, at the time, this prompting gave direction, invigoration, and hope that the Lord would complete what He had started.

As the Book of Ezra opens, the Lord stirs Cyrus to make a proclamation, allowing all the provinces of his kingdom to restore and worship their own gods in their temples.

Cyrus, or Koresh, means “keeper of the furnace,” and if you recall, Isaiah writes of Israel and the judgment leading to their restoration, “Behold, I have refined you, though not as silver. I tested you in a furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10).

It is one thing to prophesy the judgment leading to destruction and exile; it’s quite another to name the ruler who would open the way for their return some thee hundred (300) years prior to the events depicted in Jeremiah, Ezra and Nehemiah. God names Cyrus. Think about that, God named Cyrus, not his parents, the keeper of the furnace – the one who would do His will.

As Ezra 2 unfolds, those responding to the stirring of the Lord (Ez. 1:5) are accounted for; an accounting that is virtually identical to the one in Nehemiah years later. So what? With all of the ups and downs of the next 20 plus years, they make it, it wasn’t pretty, but they reconstructed His Temple.

It wasn’t a glamorous crowd, this ragtag remnant, perhaps not one that any of us would want to be part of, but they responded to the call to do God’s work, here is the meaning of some of those names from Ezra 2:

“The children of a flea,” the children of the one whom “God has judged,” the children of “the lost, the wayfarer,” the children from the “pit of the father,” the children of the one whom “God saved,” the children of the one who says “Jehovah is Father,” the children of the one “hidden or distant.”

It is as if the Lord is saying: “I build on fleas, upon those whom I have judged, the wayfarers, those delivered out of the pit, the hidden, the unseen, those at the bottom unafraid to join their hands in My work.”

The beautiful lesson of these names, is that there is room for all of us, and for everyone to join in His work.

So they set out, and after months of travel, Ezra dedicates one phrase to their journey, “When they arrived at the House of the Lord …” What? That’s it? Yup.

And what did they arrive to? A heap of rubble. But that’s not how they saw it, they arrived at the House of the Lord. Then some among the leaders gave according to their ability for the work yet to do, and they began to keep the fall feasts. Yet, they first built the Lord’s Altar (Ez. 3:2). There were no gates, no outer walls, no foundation, no structure, but they built the Altar. Why?

They arrived at the House not yet seen, and there, in faith, they built the Altar. The rubble was a testimony of past failures, and God’s judgment; but the Altar would speak to His promises, faithfulness, and to the future hope.

As you look to the pages of God’s Book, the people of God built altars in times of crisis, victory, and when they experienced defeat. Altars are places of worship to the Lord expressed as an act of sacrifice, where the one offering experiences a new beginning (Ro. 12:1). It is a place, where in the face of His magnificent grace, we have an attitude adjustment.

We cannot approach His Altar without believing in Him, desiring Him, and recognizing that He is worth far more than we have to give. He is worth all that we are, all that we will or could hope to be. Yet, by grace through faith He receives us in Messiah (Eph. 2:8-10).

We have entered an age of pressing, surrounded by voices of doubt and frustration. Yet, we cannot leave the work of God – believing in the One He sent – in stalemate: we press on.

As you face your rubble, speak God’s promises to it, just as that returning remnant did. They did not return to a pile of rubble, they returned to God’s House, even in the midst of the rubble.

Place this, dear reader, in your heart, the words of the apostle Paul, “Things no eye has seen and no ear has heard, that have not entered the heart of mankind – these things God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Cor. 2:9).

Certainly, in Christ, your latter days will be greater than your former days, when you trust Him (Hag. 2:9). Hallelujah!

Be well. Shalom.